Nintendophiles 1.20.10: New Super Mario Bros, Netflix, Sadness And Many Miis!
Posted by John De Large on 01.20.2010
Or.....A Very Musical Murder.
Hey, it's JDL on your computer screen with the Nintendo news: everything you need, nothing you don't. This week I'm actually by myself. No worries, my harem has not left me, I'm just reflecting on stuff and I feel pretty good about things right now.
Microsoft added Netflix to the Xbox 360 back in November 2008. Eventually, Sony got in on the deal and one year the PlayStation 3 had Netflix too. Not shortly after that (this spring to be exact) will the Wii add Netflix service.
The Wii does not support HD display, cannot play standard DVD's, Blu-Ray DVD's since Nintendo developed it as a console and not a multi-media entertainment so the inclusion of the Netflix service might seems strange to some. On the other hand, since the Wii has no other way to play DVD's or movies, perhaps it might be just the thing that the Wii needs most. Perhaps Nintendo's decline in sales and Sony's rapid rise might have been the impetus that inspired Nintendo to add Netflix.
An analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities suggested that this might not be enough to improve the Wii's sales, since the PS3 and 360 have the advantage of playing and downloading thousands of movies and TV shows that are not Netflix exclusives.
At the same time, another analyst at another company, Janney Montgomery Scott, states that only one-third of Wii consoles use an Internet connection, which gamers need to take advantage of the Netflix service. Meanwhile, more 360's and PS3's are connected to the internet. Considering this, Janney Montgomery Scott's analyst estimates that only 11 percent of the 26.3 million Wii users in the U.S. will use Netflix.
Perhaps gamers will enticed to buy Wii's and connect to the internet now that Nintendo has announced that the Wii will offer Netflix. 2. 100 Million Served And Counting
SOURCE: Nintendo World
It's The Attack Of The Mii's!
On December 4, 2009, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata announced that that over 100 million Miis have been created since the Wii's launch! That's a lot!
20 million Miis (that's also a lot!) have been made in Japan, while North American gamers created 80 million (that's even more!). Mind you, this total doesn't even take into account Mii's from other continents and countries or the Mii's that were made during the holidays.
I gotta say, The Mii's are cute as all hell and it would take the most icy hearted gamers to not want to create a Mii avatar or a Mii-quivalent of a famous character. Color me surprised that the Japanese weren't responsible for the 80% of the Mii population though, given their obsession with things that are cute. 3. Super Mario Bros. Goin' Strong!
SOURCE: 411mania.com (Thumbs up, cheap pop!)
New Super Mario Bros. Wii has sold 3 millions units in Japan.
Yeah, that's a million -- and then another million -- and then one more on top of that.
As of January 17, the exact sales were 3,002,753 units. Wii Fit and Wii Sports took more than a year to sell that many copies. It's still behind it's DS counterpart, which sold five million units, plus and is the best-selling DS game of all time in Japan. What's more is that Japan is going to have an all Japan NSMB coin collecting tournament! You can bet that even more people will be picking up this game now!
I love NSMB -- it's actually the only game I've played with my whole family! I wonder if Japanese families all gather around arguing which two losers will get stuck as the Toads. While NSMB is a big seller, it has a long way to go to catch up to the best selling game of the year, Modern Warfare 2. 4. "Thanks Reality TV!" - Ubisoft
SOURCE: IncGamers
Ubisoft believes that they have reality TV shows to thanks for the success of their Just Dance game.
Just Dance, a rhythm and dancing game that uses both the Wiimote and nunchuk beat out Modern Warfare 2 from the top of the UK All Format charts, where it stayed for nine weeks.
Ubisoft had this to say. "We'd attribute part of its success to the popularity of dancing shows on TV right now, something we tied our marketing campaign to with advertising during X Factor," the spokesperson continued. "There were other strong promotional elements involved, but most of all it's a fun and sociable party game that's generated incredible word of mouth."
I refuse to believe that something as evil as reality television is responsible for the success of a niche game thriving. I'm more willing to believe that people got tired of shooting each and/or wanted a workout with their games and/or wanted to dance around all willy-nilly, so they threw in Let's Dance and were surprised at how much they liked it.
Shoot, now I'm thinking who'd be on a game-centric cast of The Real World: Hyrule. Let's see, there'd be:
-Solid Snake, as the gay one
-Crono, as the disabled/mute one
-Locke, as the emo one
-Delita, as the jerk
-Aeris, as the nice girl
-Chun Li, as the floozy
-Lulu, as the bitch
-And Link and Ganon (the fat blue piggish form) could be the gay next door neighbors! Win! 5. Hurry Up, Sadness!
SOURCE: Resume Play
Before the Wii was even released (or even before it was the Wii and still the Revolution), Polish developer Nibris had announced their plans to develop a horror game for said console. At the last update, the developers announced that they would use the Gamebyro game engine.
Sadness is set during pre-WWI Eastern Europe and will be based on old Slavic myths and culture, you play as Maria, a wealthy woman who watches over her blind son. Nibris' site says that the trailer will be "coming soon" and more erroneously, that gamers can expect Sadness to be released in the fall of 2009. Wow, way to go with that one.
I guess Sadness will forever be considered vaporware, since Nibris missed their deadline. It's a shame too, because the game sounds like it could've been cool with all the Slavic myths and legends in there. I don't really know anything about Slavic mythology, but I'm guessing it would be pretty hardcore. Hmm, I wonder what happens if I type Slavic monsters into Google image search.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: It didn't end well. 6. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories sales disappoint, The Crystal Bearers starts off slow
SOURCE: Nintendo Everything
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers were unable to place in the NPD top 20 list for December, since both titles have sold under 50,000 copies thus far. What's puzzling is that Crystal Bearers has the Final Fantasy name attached to it AND it was released a week earlier (at Gamestop) than expected, while Shattered Memories has barely been released for a full month.
Despite Silent Hill: Shattered Memories getting rave reviews, it isn't being advertised as much as Crystal Bearers is, so its sales aren't expected to rebound, which is a shame since any survival horror fan/Silent Hill fan needs to make it a priority to grab this game (myself included, I just haven't gotten around to getting it! Ooops!)
Both games are bigger name titles, so why they haven't been flying off shelves is a good question. Perhaps it's due to gamers picking up other big name titles?
Actually, yeah, that makes sense. UNTIL NEXT TIME....!
Hit that comment box and not my chin!
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